Eyewitness at the UN Climate Conference

Copenhagen Out of the Frying Pan, Part 1

I am pleased to welcome Alex Carlin, the Director of The Leo J. and Celia Carlin Fund and organizer of 100 Miles of Mirrors, who is guest-writing for the Center for Media and Democracy from the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. This is the first in a series of reports of his observations from COP15. Thanks, Alex! Lisa Graves

Out of the Frying Pan, Dec. 10, 2009. We rolled our van out of the ferry boat at 8am and rumbled into the center of Copenhagen. Giant banners and billboards are everywhere trumpeting various points about global warming, such as "It's Too Late to Limit CO2 - We Need Other Solutions." Picking up a newspaper, I could see there is buzz about the "alternate" conference going on called "Klimaforum09." Naomi Klein had just given a speech there-- the first person I spoke to randomly on the street surprised me by volunteering that she was disappointed she had missed Naomi's speech. (Here is a link to her blog from The Nation on President Obama and COP15 and on how more money is being spent on war than fighting climate change.)

Klimaforum09 is right in the center of town, near the central train station. The official UN Conference is a subway ride away on the outskirts of the city. At Klimaforum09 I wanted to get a feeling for what people were proposing to do about our climate predicament. One especially interesting project is [www.2020climatesolutions.org 2020 Climate]. Jasper, a Dutchman working in 2020, showed me how you register your profiles into the website and it starts networking you with other people in the movement. The point is a good one: we are finally building a movement to deal with climate change, and many people want to contribute with a worthwhile idea or project. So, with our time urgency, how can we best start collaborating with other people in the movement in the most efficient way? With their computer logic, users can avoid wasting a lot of time by finding the best contacts for them, all over the world.

Well, I'm off to play a concert right now, so for this, my first blog, I just want to say that I will be here until the end of the Conference December 18th, and the excitement in the air is palpable. There are many people here with a message to get out into the cyberspace, and I will be seeking out the ones you are less likely to hear about on other sources. Also, as CMD's Bob Burton wrote on SourceWatch last week, "There are also issues that won't be under discussion in the Copenhagen negotiations, such as curtailing the use of coal," and so I will seek out people dealing with this *curtailing of coal* because it is perhaps the most important issue of all when we talk about climate change.

But before I go I would like to touch on the issue of police behavior, security policy, and civil liberties during this Conference. Last night, as I was organizing some things in my van about 4am, I was, suddenly, without warning, bathed in white light from 6 police halogen flashlights. I immediately thought of what Amy Goodman reported recently on DemocracyNow: the new law just enacted here for Conference "security" giving police the right to detain people for days on end for no good reason - and I thought to myself - well, there goes the daily blog! In fact, the first thing the lead cop said to me was "This is a zone where we don't need to have a reason to search your car!" And they proceeded to tear my van apart. Well, as you can see, they didn't put me away, so presumably I will be continuing this blog for the next week. Until then, this is Your Man in the Frying Pan saying "roger over and out!"

Alex Carlin serves as a Director of The Leo J. and Celia Carlin Fund. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, he lives in Krakow, Poland. He is also the organizer of 100 Miles of Mirrors. His writing includes 100 Miles of Mirrors: A Simple, Feasible Plan for Averting Global Climatic Disaster, In These Times (December 1, 2009) and Solar Thermal Can Save Us, But It Needs Public Clamor, in Grist (June 22, 2008) with Ted Nace, the director of CoalSwarm, a collaborative information clearinghouse on U.S. and international coal mines, plants, companies, politics, impacts, and alternatives that is featured in CMD's SourceWatch. He is the instigator of the recent Environment America study, "On the Rise: Solar Thermal Power and the Fight Against Global Warming."

Lisa Graves is Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy based in Madison, Wisconsin.